Hi, I am so happy to have been accepted to Northeastern with a 20k in merit as Dean’s Scholar!
But I realized I was not admitted into the Honors Program (I applied Computer Engineering).
I was wondering, is there an “appeals” process where I can write a nice letter to admissions/honors program stating the reasons why Northeastern is my first choice and why I would appreciate an invitation into the honors program? Has anyone done this before, or know others who “appealed” their Honors decision?
I would really like to go to Northeastern.
Also, it sounds a little bit odd that they would give somebody 20k but no Honors… unless my perception of the selectivity between 20k v. Honors is flawed. I always thought 20k would be harder to get than Honors.
Any thoughts? Much appreciated!
Honors is actually more rare than honors (top 10% of the class versus top 25% eligible for merit). The two decisions are actually made separately though, so you see both honors and on merit and merit and no honors, though the latter has seemed rarer in the past 2 admissions cycles in particular.
You can appeal for honors if you’d like and it’s actually often successful, or you can wait until your second year to appeal.
https://www.northeastern.edu/honors/prospective-students/joining-once-you-are-here/
That said, I’d point out that honors is not any sort of big distinction or difference in academic experience. You get a few housing perks the first 2 years, a few smaller intro courses, the new “global bank account” for doing a dialogue for free/low cost, but otherwise, no one will tell the difference. You’ll actually have a few more academic requirements that some don’t prefer. I know many that started off honors but eventually dropped the distinction because they didn’t care for the extra academic requirements but stayed for the housing perks the first two years.
I think coming from high school especially it’s easy to think honors is a big deal (given that taking honors/AP classes was such a big deal in high school for college admissions). It’s typically not in college unless the honors program makes a huge difference in undergraduate experience, which can be found often with lower “ranked” schools trying to recruit more top students.
Long story short: there’s no harm in appealing, but if it’s not successful it’s really not a big deal.